Despite a significant decline in prominent blockchain-based digital currencies such as bitcoin due restrictions that are being enforced by the governments of countries like China, there are still large and prevalent communities of cryptocurrency enthusiast in those areas. Similar restrictions have been imposed on gambling activities within the same areas.

However, in the peninsula of Macau which is the Chinese licensed Mecca of gambling activities, casino operator known as DeClub Macau has come up with a new idea to take advantage of the high demand for cryptocurrencies. For this, the casino has already inked a partnership with Wide Rich Global Company, a Maltese investment firm, to bring gambling and blockchain technology together.

DeClub, in its press release, said that Wide Rich Global Company intends to buy the casino so as to build the what the duo is referring to as the “world’s first blockchain-based casino gaming hub with fully integrated online and land-based casinos.” Wide Rich hope to fund the purchase by offering an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which will hopefully bring in as much as $1 billion.

“The tokenization of chips, casinos and their surrounding entertainment service providers will be able to build a pan-gambling business ecosystem together, so that people with varying business needs – from tourism to business meetings, to shopping – can all gain easy and cost-effective access to customized and prestigious services on their mobile devices,” Wide Rich Global Company’s officials stated in a recently released white paper.

Once the sale of the 20 billion DEC tokens is complete, De Club International will move forward with its plans to apply for a junket promoter license in Macau – this is because it intends to open multiple land-based gambling facilities both within and outside of the Macau region. The company has allocated about 35 percent of the funds from the token sales to the acquisition and licensing of said casinos.

Bypassing the Limitations of the Gambling Industry

Apparently, the prime motivator of this project is the need for a viable solution to the untrustworthy nature of the gaming industry. The project is aimed at achieving transparency are trustworthiness using blockchain technology – in essence, the project managers are counting on the fact that it is easy to conduct research, investigations or digital forensics on blockchain-based serves.

China has in the recent past had a very strained relationship with cryptocurrencies. The country also penalizes gambling outside Macau despite the obvious demand for it, but with blockchain technology, it will be much harder for the country’s government to implement these restrictions since users can gambler using a number of digital currencies anonymously.

There are, of course, a number of challenges that stand in the way of the project – the fact that Macau does not allow blockchain gambling yet, for instance – but with just enough lobbying, it will be a reality sooner than we may anticipate.